“The Niira Radia audio archive loaded on to the Internet by Open and Outlook magazines last week is the red pill of our time. It reveals the source codes, networks, routers, viruses and malware that make up the matrix of the Indian State,” wrote Mr. Varadarajan in The Hindu. “The transmission of information, also known as ‘news,’ between different nodes is vital for the system to work efficiently.”

“The truth is that the Radia tapes are less about mala fide journalism, and more about just how high-stake corporate wars, be they over telecom or gas, can eventually ‘subvert’ an entire system,” wrote Mr. Sardesai. “Where does the journalist fit into this larger scheme? In the classical mould, a journalist should be the guerrilla in the system, looking to expose and investigate. Unfortunately, the journalist has been co-opted into the power elite when he should really be the quintessential ‘outsider.’”

“The transcripts have laid bare specific cases in which professional boundaries have been blurred. A cynical and pessimistic reading would be that India’s pugnacious, free, fast-growing media is universally complicit, that closeness to corrupt centers of power has corrupted it in turn,” said the paper. “Such a reading, however, would be as mistaken as would be completely ignoring the danger signals evident in a few individuals’ behavior. The media in India is an institution with thousands and thousands of people doing an honest, competent, professional job. Half a dozen journalists, with apparently varying degrees of indiscretion, do not an institution make.”

“Journalists must engage with lobbyists, perhaps even develop a relationship of trust. But it is important to know when to say ‘No,’ a principle equally applicable to NGOs who have agendas too,” he wrote in the Deccan Chronicle on Friday.

He also rejected the idea that Ms. Dutt should have reported on Ms. Radia’s lobbying, making her source the story. NDTV star journalist Barkha Dutt has received the most negative attention of any journalist for her conversations with Ms. Radia, in which she appeared to be agreeing to carry a message to the Congress party. Ms. Dutt has denied doing that and has said she was merely using the lobbyist for information.

“Meaningful political journalism involves developing relationships based on discretion and confidentiality,” wrote Mr. Dasgupta. “A good source takes years, if not decades, to develop and cannot be frittered away by a spit-and-run approach. Barkha Dutt didn’t err by not divulging that Radia was now a player in the DMK: she was far too valuable a source to be ‘burnt’ for one rapidly-moving story.”

The DMK, which rules in Tamil Nadu, is a Congress ally. Some of the Radia recordings are from the time after national elections last year when the two parties were trying to reach a compromise on what ministerial portfolios the former should get in return for its support.

“Isn’t lobbying an accepted fact of life in a democracy?” asked Mr. Srinivasan. “If so, is it possible to bring it out of the underground, reform the practice, confer it with legitimacy and make it transparent?”

He said that way corporate interests could continue lobbying, but with greater accountability: “The common man and the media will then have an idea of which Minister or bureaucrat is favoring which corporate interest, going by the policy that is formulated. The policymaker too, whether a politician or a bureaucrat, will then be wary of granting outrageous favors.”

“Both Sanghvi and Dutt have a measure of the pulse of the audience and are clearly exceptionally bright journalists. They also have a way out of this controversy and it befuddles me why they are not grabbing it with both hands,” wrote Ms. Narayan on Wednesday. “It is something far easier to utter. It is two simple words that have been said countless times before: mea culpa. My mistake.”

On Wednesday night Hindustan Times Vir Sanghvi apologized to his readers in an appearance on the news channel Headlines Today. Mr. Sanghvi has also received a great deal of criticism for his conversations with Ms. Radia, for appearing to be willing to slant a column according to her suggestions. Mr. Sanghvi has denied doing that and said he was just stringing her along.

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